A key feature of the government's transparency initiative is under threat after plans to publish regular 'traffic-light' progress reports on its large, costly and risky IT projects appear to have been shelved.

The head of the home civil service, Sir Bob Kerslake, had told MPs he wanted to make major strides with the transparency agenda in the civil service reform action plan, to be discussed by cabinet on Tuesday. But the plank on transparency appears to have been dropped.

The Cabinet Office has won plaudits for its initiatives on the publication of government data, but there is a growing fear that enthusiasm is stalling in parts of Whitehall.

Reports have emerged that departments most closely involved in major construction and IT projects, such as the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Ministry of Defence, are raising objections. The DWP insists it has been fully open about the progress of big projects such as the universal credit – the major shakeup of the benefits system.

The action plan is seen as an attempt to professionalise the civil service by focusing on value for money, improving civil servants' procurement skills, handing ministers a greater role in the appointment of permanent secretaries and contracting out some policymaking.

The plan, following months of sniping between ministers and civil servants over their mutual failings, is seen as critical to rebuilding trust between the two wings of government. But a government source said there was not expected to be a major initiative on transparency.

Campaigners have tried for more than a decade to persuade governments to publish 'Gateway' reviews, the short independent audits on the state of big projects that are conducted internally. The assessments normally label reports using a traffic light system, so parliament and other parties can be warned if problems have developed.

Critics say the system is too simplistic and might make civil servants even more risk-averse. Others warn that publishing the findings will likely lead to more projects being given green lights.

Major IT project failures have dogged successive governments and MPs on the public accounts committee, frustrated they are often informed of problems too late, have called for publication of the Gateway traffic light ratings.

Richard Bacon, the senior Conservative on the committee who has been pressing Kerslake to put the Gateway initiative in the action plan, said: "If there is no collective memory of why mistakes happen, we will never learn from them. There is no shame in mistakes – the shame is not learning from them. Too often the same thing goes wrong over and again."

Bacon pointed out that the outgoing Cabinet Office permanent secretary, Ian Watmore, had arranged for the Opening Gate report on universal credit to be published in the Commons library, but the DWP then refused to publish other reports on the Gateway projects, including the one already published by Watmore.

Challenged by Bacon that the episode showed a culture of intuitive, instinctive secrecy," Kerslake replied: "Yes, actually we are looking at this specific issue as part of the Civil Service Reform Plan … I cannot say exactly what will be in the plan because we have not finalised it yet, but it is due in June and my expectation is that I am very sympathetic to publication of the RAG [red, amber, green] ratings."

Asked if he was sympathetic to publication Kerslake again insisted he was , adding "watch this space".